The brain can survive up to six minutes after the heart stops. A fire can engulf a room, trapping residents, in 10 minutes.

National Fire Protection Association sets standards on staffing and response times so firefighters arrive before irreparable damage occurs. Career departments are asked to hit six minutes from dispatch to arrival; volunteer departments are given more leeway, with response times from nine to 14 minutes.

“What they can afford is going to dictate what they can do,” said Bruce Moritz, president of the Ohio Fire Chiefs’ Association.

In Richland County, firefighters responded to structure fires in seven minutes and 20 seconds, on average, according State Fire Marshal’s Office data from 2010 and 2011. Response times varied from department to department, with Mansfield Fire Department responding quickest and Franklin Township Fire Department responding the slowest.

Setting the bar

The National Fire Protection Association set two standards for staffing and response times in 2001: one for career, or paid, fire departments and another for volunteer departments.

For career departments, the standard response time is about six minutes. The standard includes one minute for dispatching, one minute to 80 seconds to prepare and leave the station and four minutes of drive time.

The bar is the same regardless of the department’s size — New York City’s fire department should have the same response time as Mansfield’s fire department, said Curt Varone, an attorney and retired firefighter who served on the committee that established the standard.

“Response time is the same because the physical properties of fire are the same in both locations,” Varone said.

For volunteer departments, the standard depends on the population density or residents per square mile. For areas with more than 1,000 people per square mile, the recommended response time from dispatch to arrival is nine minutes. For areas with fewer than 500 people per square mile, the recommended response is 14 minutes.

The standards differ because it’s unreasonable to expect volunteer departments, whose staff typically work other jobs, to respond with the speed of a career firefighter, said Ken Willette, division manager of the NFPA’s Public Fire Protection Division.

The standards encourage quicker responses, let residents know industry best practices and allow departments to track their progress, Willette said. If response times increase dramatically, fire personnel might assess the health of their residents, including obesity and hypertension, he added.

Departments are not required to follow the NFPA’s standards unless local laws adopt the best practices, Willette said. John Peters, president of the Rural Ohio Fire Council and an instructor at Hocking College, said he doesn’t cover the NFPA standards in his training program.

But ignoring the standards has other repercussions. Response times are one of several factors, including quality of equipment and training, considered by the Insurance Services Office’s rankings, which affect insurance rates, Peters said.

Following the standard might save a department in court, where most states consider the NFPA’s standard relevant evidence in determining negligence, Varone said.

Paying the bills

Meeting the standards is more difficult with fewer resources and dollars, said Moritz, president of the Ohio Fire Chiefs’ Association.

Cuts to local government funds and elimination of the tangible personal property tax have hurt revenue streams for departments across Ohio. Training and equipment are expensive, but taxpayers will get what they pay for, Moritz said.

That leaves departments asking taxpayers for additional funds. A third of the 1,055 tax levies on Ohioans November ballots came from fire and emergency medical service departments, more than double the number of school issues on the ballots.

Trumbull County had the most levies with 19 departments seeking funds, followed by Ashtabula County with 16 and Muskingum County with 13.

Of the more than 360 levies before Ohio voters, only 24 failed. All that failed were seeking additional millage, according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s election results.

“Up until the last couple years, most fire levies would pass. Here lately, there have been fire protection levies that have failed,” Peters said. “Money is tighter now than it ever was.”

Finding volunteers

Even with a balanced budget, departments have trouble recruiting and retaining volunteers, who account for 69 percent of all firefighters nationally, said Kimberly Quiros, a spokeswoman with the National Volunteer Fire Council.

Economic troubles have forced some volunteers to seek paying positions or move from smaller towns to find work, Quiros said.

Other volunteers are dissuaded by stricter training requirements. Starting in 2008, Ohio firefighters were required to renew their license with the Ohio Department of Public Safety every three years by passing a test. If a firefighter does not renew the license, he or she faces a renewal fee and 36 hours of additional training.

“Before, it was once a firefighter, forever a firefighter,” Peters said. “Someone at the state level decided it was time to clean out the rolls.”

The requirements, which are rarely enforced, have complicated operation of volunteer departments. Some employees thought they were certified but weren’t; others elected to forgo re-certification, Peters said.

“We have probably a number of fire departments that don’t have certified people working for them. They are dependable, and they just carry them on the rolls,” Peters said.

Another problem is the younger generation is less interested in volunteer firefighting than their parents, Peters said.

“We are entering the age of geriatric firefighting. A lot of baby boomers are retiring,” Peters said. “The state and national folks need to wake up and address the issue.”

The National Volunteer Firefighter Council is advocating for several initiatives to reverse the volunteerism decline: tax incentives or educational benefits for volunteer firefighters, reimbursement of gas or food and flexibility in training schedules.

Other suggestions included starting a junior fire department to engage teenagers’ interest in firefighting or establishing a fire corps to handle administrative and public relations tasks.

“Volunteers are really an important part of our fire service. They are not going away,” Quiros said. “We are trying to address the challenges.”